Woodworking Tips from Pop…

Sometimes I just can’t leave well enough alone. I decided today to include another new category on this site called “The Woodworkers Gallery”. This is where I’ll post, not only my projects but other craftsmen’s as well. These are projects that inspire us and I felt they should be included on this site.
Surfing the internet has made it possible for us to view many custom woodworkers that share their projects on the web. One site I’ve recently come across is a woodworking site called LumberJocks. A website for woodworkers around the world to interact with each other, showcase their projects and share tricks of the trade. I’ve come across several outstanding craftsmen on this site that I will be showcasing some of their work in this category.

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The Drawing Room 

In light of our new look, I felt motivated to create a new category called the “Drawing Room”. This is where I’ll dump CAD drawings of jobs that we’ve completed, jobs we didn’t get, and others that are still in the idea phase. Our Cad drawings are a very important tool when it comes to the designing and building of custom projects. Anything can look good on paper, so these drawings are meant to be only a guideline and are constantly tweaked during the actual building of the projects. This is the place for making comments and asking questions about building bars, mantels, entertainment centers and any other type of custom project.

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Building a custom bar…..Page 2

The story pole

The very first course of action in building this bar is the layout of the lower cabinetry on the back bar. This is done using a homemade story pole that keeps track of all the dimensions for the appliances, face frames and any other type of measurement. This stick will be the lifeline of this bar over the next few weeks or months.

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Building a custom bar…..Page 1

Today we started on a bar that finds its inspiration from the old Gaslight clubs of Chicago. A chain of night clubs in the 1950’s that gave inspiration to Hugh Heffner’s famous Playboy clubs. These Cad drawings below are just the start of a series of post I will be doing on the construction of this bar. In the view box click on the green arrow for a clearer view of the drawings. 

Whole bar view

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Simplicity is beautiful!

This is Pops comeback whenever a customer tries to get complicated. Not that there’s anything simple about this mantel, it is just simple in the way that all the elements flow naturally together. Now from a craftsmans’ point of view, there’s nothing at all simple about this mantel. It takes a lot of time and effort to build a mantel like this.

The material for this mantel is called furniture grade white pine, and it is a pleasure to work with. It is light weight and very soft which makes milling and sanding much easier. It stains and paints excellent, and it is available in plywood at most lumber companies. If you’re looking for a rustic yet elegant design, furniture grade white pine is an excellent choice.

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The coffered ceiling is one of the most elegant features that can be added to kitchens, libraries, bars, foyers and we’ve even installed them in bedrooms. They can be painted, stained or as in the picture, a combination of both.
There are two types of coffered ceilings, actual solid hardwood beams or cosmetic beams. Solid hardwood beams tend to be a little more rustic and are definitely heavier and can take several people to install. They have to be bolted to the ceiling joist and in some cases even the ceiling joist has to be reinforced.
The cosmetic beam is another story. It can be installed by one person in a couple days depending on the style. The trick to keeping the coffered ceiling simple is the technique of using L brackets to hold the beams to the ceiling. Now every room is going to be different, and there are no standards when it comes to the size of the coffered beams, so a mock-up piece is recommended in order to find exactly the right size beam. We typically construct somewhere between a five and six inch wide and five and six inch deep beam depending on the height of the ceiling and the size of the crown molding. The higher the ceilings the larger the beam can be.

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 Remember the old days when we had to wait for the glue to dry!

This is great video!
I was introduced to the Kreg jig a couple of years ago by a woodworking friend who builds cabinetry and furniture for a living. I was amazed at the time this little jig was saving him on his face frames and we all know (time is money). So I had to buy one immediately! This little tool has paid for itself many times over, not only in time but quality. If your shop is without one of these tools you’re missing out!

 The mini Kreg jig

Another great video worth watching